


The Subterranean God of MI-6

by Venstar



Category: James Bond (Craig movies), James Bond - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Greek Mythology, Hades/Persephone - Freeform, M/M, fun there's lots of fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-16
Updated: 2016-07-16
Packaged: 2018-07-24 06:45:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7498194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Venstar/pseuds/Venstar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The mind of a God is never still, even when it’s forgotten what it once was…<br/> Q flickered between himself and Hades on the way home, the riders in his train giving him  wary looks and space, something about him now unsettled them.  The kindly grandparents pulled their purses and coats close around them.  The large youths pushed their earphones further into their ears, trying to lose themselves in the sound of their music.  Small children peeped shyly out at him from over their parents shoulders.  Those same parents would glance back and then quickly pull their children down to face away.  Q kept his head down as he exited the tube station and made his way to the entrance to his building, bypassing the elevator and running up the stairs, where he finally stumbled through his doorway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Oracle of Wifi

**Author's Note:**

> \--ok so yeah whoa, i uh let this little prompt from the 007 Prompt Fest kind of get away from me. And by get away from me, i mean it wouldn't stop and i had a really good time. thanks to my beta's Alejandra, Dustyjournal aka Satan. Based on the prompt "hades/persephone au with a pissed oFf q. I TRIED TO PISS OFF Q.  
> \--also, thought i should throw up some 00Q before the 00Q reverse bang happens so that i can at least point to this when the artist goes so...uh...have you written any 00q before? yup here it is.  
> \--i really hope you enjoy it, i had fun with it. and now for the disclaimers: 1. it's not brit picked, 2. i didn't put hardly any research time into Versailles, so i took a LOT of liberties with it just ignore it and forgive me. 3. i also took liberties with all the greek mythology i knew and looked up. 4. i played with a different storytelling than i usually do.  
> \--good luck, have fun, leave a comment or kudos, there's always room to improve!

 

THEN…

 

     In a coffee shop, filled with jumbled tables piled with lace doilies, bookcases stuffed with books, tea tins, soaps and old, odd tinctures; an elderly lady was sitting in one of the endless army of mismatched wingbacks that were placed around the room.  Her feet did not reach the floor and she was kicking them in amusement as she scrolled through her phone.  

     The silver bells over the door jingled, announcing a visitor, who paused at the entrance, waiting for their sight to adjust to the sudden darkness.  He stepped into the cool, dark, heavily coffee scented room and onto the dark green floral rugs that lined the shop from wall to wall.  This was the 57th cafe/coffee shop with free wifi that Persephone had visited, he was tired and ill tempered.  He heard a quick cackle and turned his head to the sound.  All he could see was a pair of brightly colored galoshes kicking the air, the rest of the body was hidden by the deep wings of the chair.

     Persephone took a step forward, frowning and jumped back as the body in the chair moved forward suddenly and he was confronted with an old lady wearing so many mismatched prints and textiles in her skirt, blouses and cardigans.  A top hat and monocle completed her look.  She let out another dusty old laugh, held up her phone and and pointed at the brightly lit screen.  Persephone blinked as he was confronted by a strange picture of a cat on a sofa.

 

     “Are you the Oracle,” Persephone asked with some hesitancy, it had been a long time since he had laid eyes or ears upon the Priestess of the Temple of Apollo.

     Another image flashed up on her screen as she swiped across it with her gnarled pointer finger, her eyes rolling as she points to it again, revealing another cat photo.  

 

     Persephone muttered to himself, “I remember when the Gods were respected and feared.”  He approached the wingback chair directly in front of the Oracle.  “I seek guidance,” he said, speaking louder as the Oracle pulled her phone back to her cardigan covered chest and stared at him silently.

     The Oracle didn’t speak.  She tapped her phone against her empty coffee cup at her elbow, and flashed Persephone the screen again.  This time, a bald man was making finger quotes in the air.

     “Ah, I remember now, the Oracles require a tribute of some sort.  Would you care for a refill?”  Persephone smiled charmingly at the lady Oracle.

     The Oracle smiled at Persephone and held her cup out to him.  Persephone went to the counter to refill the Oracle’s cup, order one for himself and a plate of scones.  He returned to the Oracle and settled her cup and offered her a scone.  She smiled gently and benevolently at him for a minute.  He took his seat as she situated her refreshments as he did as well, when she was done, she rose and approached Persephone.  He sat still in his chair as she gazed most sorrowfully at him and took a moment to study him through her monocle.  When she was finished gazing into his soul, she brushed her gnarled hand gently across his cheek, her skin paper thin, cold and softly wrinkled.  

     He leaned into the touch, the first one he had received from another since Hades had disappeared.  He winced as she gave him a small pinch to his cheek and returned to her chair.  She smiled widely at him and sipped from her cup, waiting.  He took a moment with his own cup and scone and looked at her, organizing his thoughts.  “I spoke to the three fates.  They said to seek you out, that you might have answers.”

     The Oracle tilted her head and shrugged her shoulders, feet kicking again.

     “I search for Hades, to bring him-” Persephone was cut off by a violent shake of the Oracle’s head and the flash of her phone’s screen once more.  A thoughtful dinosaur on a green background was shown to him.

     Confused, Persephone considered the Oracle and what she had shown him.  He sighed, of course, the Gods, though weak, could still be spiteful or merciful depending on their whim.  Where he had asked his Mother not to interfere, it wouldn’t be a surprise if she had asked another God for help to return what once was hers.  An eternity of springtime was something she would enjoy, but not Persephone without Hades.  

     He frowned in concentration and asked his question again.  “I seek Hades?”  He looked to the Oracle for guidance.  She nodded her head this time and turned her attention to her phone.  Persephone sipped at his drink and watched as the Oracle’s eyes glazed over as the images flashed across her screen, faster than humanly possible, without any assistance from her.  

     This went on for minutes until her gnarled finger shot out at a seemingly random moment and halted the images.  She looked thoughtfully at the image briefly before giving the phone another shake, but the images wouldn’t scroll again.  She sighed and turned the screen to face Persephone.  He turned his gaze to face his fate.  A small human child wearing a green and white t-shirt was holding up a fist.

     He glanced back up to the Oracle.  “Well, it could be worse,” he said, “But it doesn’t tell me where to find him.  I said I seek Hades.  This indicates that he’s here, but where is he, surely you can tell me where to find him.”

     The Oracle shrugged her shoulders and chose another photo.  A man dressed as a bat was striking another costumed figure.  

  
      A sigh gusted through Persephone’s lips.  “So you’re saying, that no matter how much effort I’ve put into finding you to find him, I have to keep going, keep searching.  The world is an awfully big place madam Oracle, this is going to be a needle in a haystack search.  I could look forever and never find him!  I could look forever and he would have faded to nothing, by the time I find him and even though finding him would be a ‘victory’, it would still be a hardship if I couldn’t keep him.  Is it even worth the risk of searching for him?”  Persephone laid out all of his fears and frustrations, not expecting anything else from the Oracle, who was looking upon him with pity.  “I don’t want your pity, I just want my husband,” he growled at her.  

     She kicked her feet and giggled before scrolling through her phone again and selecting an image to show him.  The cat was pushing a watermelon through water.

     Persephone studied the image and glanced up at the Oracle.  “You know, my Mother always did say I was more stubborn and self-destructive than was good for me.  Perhaps she was right?”  The Oracle giggled and gave him a thumbs up sign.  “All right,” he said.  “What is time to a God.”  Persephone finished his coffee and scone and thanked the Oracle for her time and made his way back to Cerberus and the Underworld that waited for him.


	2. Waking Dreams

NOW….

 

The mind of a God is never still, even when it’s forgotten what it once was…

 

     The Quartermaster of MI6 stood just outside the entrance to his lair.  He was a young,  slender fellow, not much bigger than you or I in height, but definitely larger than a thimbleful.  The slight bulk of his frame was wrapped in layers of tweed and horrifyingly patterned cardigans, topped with a strangely sentient head of brown wavy hair that was always trying to stray away from it’s master, no matter how many times he tried to catch it with his fingers and pet it back into some semblance of obedience.  No one could say where he had picked up his odd style of dress, and to complete the look, a pair of spectacles sat on the bridge of his nose, screening a set of hazel-green eyes.  

     Bets were on in the double-oh department, that he was emulating a favorite professor, some of the romantics in the same department thought perhaps he was imitating the style of a beloved father and the realists called bull shit and bet that it was all for show.  When in fact, in his own words, he would describe himself as terrifyingly average in appearance, a bit small, a bit thin, too pale from occupational habits, though there was no helping that, definitely a solitary soul and Christ, would his hair just lie down for a bit.  If he put any serious thought to the words used by others to describe him, he would sum them up as eternally youthful, covered in spots and terrifyingly adorable.  He had no idea where the adorable bit came from.  He suspected R, but now, one of those double-oh agents was trying to distract him with an adorable...flower?

     “This? This is what you dragged me from the underworld for?”  Q asked, calm and cool.  But underneath, he was slightly frustrated, but determined not to show it.  The agent in question looked at him with some surprise at the nickname for Q-branch.  Most of the minions of Q-branch fondly called their underground bunker “The Underworld.”  Q looked at the small sprig of white flowers trying to grow out of a crack in the wall near the entrance to Q-branch.

     Before he was dragged out here, he had been in the middle of a waking dream…

~~*~~

_ Warm sunshine and flower filled fields. _

_                                    He looked down to find his hands full of lush greenery that became alive and warm,  _

_                                                       skin on skin, sliding over his hands, down his arms,  _

_                                                                                        until coming to rest upon his hips, but briefly.   _

_                       His hands tightened in anticipation, crushing the greenery as it pulled from him.  “Don’t go,” he said, “Stay.” _

_                                                                                                                                                                     He was lost in the dark and cold, lonely,   _

_                                                                                                                                                                         always lonely until the sun captured him.   _

_                                                                                                                  A bright heat upon his skin and he looked for the source of his captor. _

_ If the sun were a living being, it was drawing patterns across his skin, _

_ golden and bronzed, finger tips were leaving their mark.  (Could someone love the sun?) _

_ If I were the flower and you were the sun, could you love me? _

_ If you were a flower and I were the sun, I would love you, but you are not a flower, and I am not the sun. _

_ I wish to be… _

~~*~~

     “Q?”

     “I wish to be…”  The Quartermaster said out loud.

     “Q!?” A concerned voice entered into the part of Q’s brain that had been half asleep.  A broad, warm hand grasped his shoulder.

     “Left alone, I wish to be left alone while I finish fixing this line of code.”  Q finished abruptly.  He glanced down at the hand that was still resting on his shoulder.  It was removed with a soft snort.

     “You can not possibly hope to lie to a double-oh, Q.”

     “I am working on a very complex set of codes 007.”  Q shot back softly and began to type swiftly upon his keyboard.

     “You were woolgathering.”  007 argued back as he watched the Quartermaster try to recover his dignity.  He wasn’t going to let him though.

     “You are being rather difficult.   Get out Bond.”  Q flicked his gaze quickly over at the agent standing directly behind his shoulder, who was doing a great impression of an immoveable potted plant.

     007 shrugged his shoulders and moved to Q’s side to lean a hip against his work station, “But I like it here.”

     Q pushed his glasses up with the knuckle of his first finger and remained concentrated on his task.  “I know you can speak and understand english, it’s your first language.  Get out.”

     “It reminds me of home,” 007 sighed mournfully and refused to look away from Q.

     Q gave an inelegant snort and reached for his Scrabble mug to take a sip.  “Q branch is nothing like a Scottish moor.”

     “Not the moors, it reminds me of the under…”  007 paused and shifted, a slight move that was uncomfortable in it’s nature, which is what caught Q’s eye and concentration.  007 stilled himself and met Q’s discerning gaze with a bored impassive look.

     “Under what?”  Q asked, curious now.

     “Under Skyfall, the tunnels.  I hated those tunnels, but I like it here.”

     “Very cheerful Bond.  Out.”  Q pointed to the door, in case the agent had gotten lost in the maze of the bunker.  

     “Only if you let me show you something.  Follow me.”

     Q waited, but Bond began to walk swiftly away.  “Hang on,” grouched Q, he quickly saved and closed his work before he snagged his tablet to follow the distracting agent.

     “Time and tide wait for no man, Q.”

     “Naval recruits.”  Q grumbles as he followed 007 through the workstations of the minions and out of the main doors to the Bunker, to be confronted with the flower on the wall.

     Q looked over his glasses at the most deceptively charming, slightly surprised and hopeful look on MI-6’s most deadly, destructive and senior agent.   _“Don’t let him hear you call him senior,”_ Q thought, quickly tucking that word far, far back in his descriptive vocabulary.  Instead, he swept the agent with a calm and curious look and studied the blond haired, blue eyed man for a moment in silence.  The hopeful look was swiftly fading.  Q couldn’t put his finger on it, but he guessed that the agent looked slightly disappointed. Now, whether or not that was because Q didn’t squeal due to the cute factor of the flower or that he wasn’t bowled over with tiny organic life form trying to grow out of a branch devoted entirely to technology.  “007, I haven’t checked your file in a bit, but is it possible you’re due for a psych eval?”

     The agent shrugged his broad shoulders, the fine material of his grey bespoke suit riding smoothly along with them.  “It seemed like a good idea at the time.” he muttered, glaring at the small white flower.

     “I don’t have time for agents who think they are more amusing than they actually are.”  Q glanced at his tablet, “I have a full schedule,” Q turned the tablet to show 007 and pointed to his daily schedule.  “See, all full and oh look, there’s no time blocked out on here for ‘bored agent antics.’  Shame, really.  Come back tomorrow, I might be able to pencil you in.”

     007 leaned back to get his face out of the tablet’s reach, but snapped a hand out to hold it steady as he pretended to study it, his fingers slightly jarring the tablet as they wrapped around the bottom of Q’s own cold digits.  Q gave a slight tug at the sudden contact.  “Hmmm,” 007 murmured and pushed his face closer to the schedule displayed.  “Well, clearly, there’s been a mistake here.” He jabbed a finger into the screen.

     “What is it with old people and touching screens,” Q mumbled as he tried to take his tablet back, his fingers still stuck under Bond’s hand.  He got quiet as a pair of ice blue eyes flicked up at him and a silent tug-of-war commenced.

     “Q, where’s your sense of adventure?”  007 asked as he pretended to study the slight young man.  “Did you leave it in your other cardigan?  Perhaps you should check your pockets.”

     Q’s eyes flashed up in irritation and he slowly pulled his tablet back and the agent let it go just as slowly.  He tucked it under his arm again and responded softly, as he nodded behind him to the closed security doors, “It’s down below, where I spend my time with the minions, making things for you to break.”

     “I might be a little jealous of the minions then.”

     Q gave a little twitch to the side of his mouth and crossed his arms.  “Care to become one Bond?  I dare say that would be a first.  A double-oh, willing to spend an eternity in the underworld.  Slaving away next to the common minions.  Or would that be slumming it.  I know how you double-ohs feel about the minions.  Poor soulless creatures, doomed to spend an eternity serving their dark overlord.”

     “I could think of worse people to spend my time with.”  Bond said, his eyes once again trailing over Q until they landed on his face, a smirk on his mouth and a glimmer of mischief in his eyes.

     Q huffed out a breath, “Flattery 007, will get you nowhere.  Now, may I return.”  Q made to move away, to access the security panel to the side of the doors.

     007 flashed a sunny smile, “No.  M wants to see you.  He waits on high, at the top of Mt. Olympus.”

     “M is not Zeus.” Q mumbled as he pulled at his cardigan and ran a hand through his hair.  He stopped when he noticed Bond following his movements.  “Problem?”

     Bond smiled into the silence, a quick, false shark’s smile, with flat eyes reflecting the dim light of the bunker. “No, none, Quartermaster.  Shall I walk you up then?” 

     “No, I need to settle a few things and then I’ll be up.  Someone distracted me with flowers and now I’ve gone off my schedule.”  Q opened the doors to Q-branch and Bond gave a small nod and turned to walk away.  Q slipped through the small space and returned to the hustle and bustle of his horde of minions.

     When Q walked back out of Q-branch he looked up briefly at the small white flower and frowned at it, he could have sworn that there had been but one tiny plant, now there were several spotting the wall.  He touched one briefly with a fingertip, the petal soft to the touch and the stems were springy and delicate... _ a handful of greenery... _

 

* * *

 

     Another mission received from M and an agent to get ready.  Q reviewed and packed the  gear 007 would require.  He let his mouth curl at the sides in a show of quick amusement at the idea of sending one of the most destructive agents in MI6 history to be a guest at the Palace of Versailles.  

     Q held up the invitation that they had fabricated.  “I’ve always wanted to visit Versaille,” Q said in an aside to R, who was puttering around next to him, trying to organize blueprints, schematics and lines of codes on scratch paper that she had brought over and were now littering his work station.  This was her idea of brainstorming together.

     “Have you?” she said distractedly, she gave her nose ring a slight adjustment before exclaiming “Aha, here are the notes on the miniature EMP grenade!  I was wondering if that had been a dream or nightmare, considering Alec helped me with it and it’s been what, six months since I’ve seen him or this.” She waved the small napkin that was covered in scribbles and dimensions at him.

     “A grenade design on a cocktail napkin?”

     “We went out for drinks, it’s all we had on hand.  Anyways, you wanted to visit Versailles?”

     “Well, I did, but now that 007 will be going down there…”

     “Ruins can be pretty, Q.” R smiled.  “Like this horribly ruined cocktail napkin.  Who knows, maybe Bond will come back with a miniature grenade!”

     “I shudder at the thought.”

     “Well, it’ll be an adventure.”

     “You’re the second person to talk about adventures,” Q looked at her quizzically.

     “Oh, really, who was the first?”

     “Bond, but he was being silly.” Q murmured to R.  She nudged him with her elbow and let out a snort.  Together they managed to sort out her paper ideas and get 007’s gear ready to go for pickup before the agent was to depart for the airport.

     Another waking dream snagged the Quartermaster’s attention and since he was a curious soul, he let himself experience it.  Perhaps it would be the same.

_~~*~~_

_ The space should have been unfamiliar, a ruined palace, a nightmare to live in with it  _ _ falling apart like it was. He picked his way through the ruins, a chill greedily creeping up from the land, yet he felt no discomfort, no fear, no cold. Q heard someone cry his name in the distance. The landscape stretched further than he could he see. Dark mist crept along the edges of his vision, revealing sections as he surveyed the empty stone hallways. Q didn't recognize the style of the arches, or know the names of the vines that draped over the trellises. He wouldn't. This cold, hollow place was a...dream. The voice called once again, it was familiar, it was calling him, and it was...home? _

_                                                              Then...fingertips pressed into his skin, against his jaw to turn his head, to dig into his back...   _

_ Calloused palms, followed the fingertips and they glided down, across the curves of his ribs, up, to smooth over his chest and down.   _

_ They were warm, almost hot, where his skin was cold...   _

_ Shadows everywhere, hands everywhere, deep laughter filling the air.   _

_ Smooth, soft petals drifted across his skin, light and dancing, silk against the rough hands, the hands of a gardener...  _

_ (how did he know that?)  _

_ Deep reds against pale skin...   _

_ Soft blond hair, it whispered and tickled across his own hands…. _

_ Eyes the color of the summer sky, ever changing with the seasons… _

_ (wait how did he know they changed?)  _

_ They looked to him, and the skies parted and the sun shone down with an intensity, warming his skin against the cold from the inside out and he was complete... _

_ The sound of rough laughter filled his ears and he smiled at the sound. _

~~*~~

     “Q?....Q!” the voice of 007 barked into Q’s ear as he was slammed back into the present from wherever his mind had drifted.

     “No need to shout, 007,” Q replied softly.

     “Where did you go?”

     “Nowhere, I’ve been here all along.”

     “Liar.  Am I boring you?” The agent on the other end asked in the softest voice he kept in his arsenal.  Q had heard several variations before and this was the one that bordered on lethal and bored, a deadly combination.

     Q gave a quick shudder as it brought back some flashes of his earlier daydream.  He glanced quickly up at the screens in front of him and to the rest of his minions behind him, hidden in the shadows.  “Not at all, 007.  How’s the party?”

     “I’ve had better.”

     “Bond.”

     “Well, I have.”

     “I’m sure.  Enough small talk, do you require anything from Q branch or are you simply bored?”

     A swift look up at the screens and Q was just in time to see 007 glance up and turn his head, briefly touching his eyes to one of the security cameras mounted at the perimeter of his current location.  

     Two days ago, 007 had been shipped off to France.  An outdoor garden party on the grounds of Versailles where a variety of diplomatic persons and unsavory groups looking to buy their ways into their pockets were expected to attend.  MI6 had heard whispers about which groups might attend.  007 had been sent to do what he does best, spy and l _ ook good in a tux _ .

     “What was that Q?” Bond asked with a hint of laughter in his voice.

     “ _ Shit,”  _ Q thought to himself, he had said that last part out loud.  “Nothing,” Q said out loud swiftly.  “Report back when you have something.”  Q made to push the disconnect button, but Bond interrupted him before he could end their communication.

     “I beg your pardon Q, but I did actually have information to share.”

     Q drew himself up to give his agent his full attention.  He leaned slightly forward as if to stick his head through the cameras.  He could see that Bond was slowly but surely making his way through the party goers, smiling and nodding at those he passed, but his eyes would track back to the same spot.  “What do you have?”

     “Sending a photo now.  The face looks familiar, but I can’t be sure.”

     A slightly blurry photo came through, it was of a woman with dark red hair hanging on the arm of some bloke Q didn’t have the front of.  The back of the head definitely looked familiar, with all the salt and pepper, tall rangy frame.  “Didn’t feel like shooting an old flame?”

     “If the needs must.”

     “I daresay.  Running facial recognition now.  Is that who I think it is?” Q’s voice lifted slightly at the end in question.

     “You know her?”

     “No.  I mean the gentleman she’s hanging off of.  I’ve seen that back before.”

     “Should I be jealous?”

     Q chose to ignore Bond’s comment, the agent stayed quiet in the pause, waiting for Q to fill his needs.  “Ah, we have a hit.  That’s  Maarika , known alias, Medusa.  Hmm, odd,”

     “Fantastic,” Bond muttered softly, interrupting Q.

     “She’s in your line of work, it would appear.  Nasty bit of a record.  Looks like she’s got her hooks in...can you identify her target?”

     “Negative, I’ve only seen his back this evening.  Damn.  You thought he looked familiar?”

     “Yes.  Searching now... here we go, he works for the British Embassy in Paris, head of their passport division.  007, where are you going?”

     “Well, now I’m curious as to what she has planned for him.”

     “Fine.  Trail after them, observe only.  Report back…”

     “Will do, good night Q, sweet dreams.”  With that, Bond cut the connection to Q’s earpiece.

     Once Q has silence pressed against his eardrum again, he let loose a soft swear.  Okay, he lied to himself, he let out a string of curse phrases.  Some of his minions turned to him at the sudden hushed rapid fire sounds coming from his direction.

     “Are you actually purring? ” asked R, his second in command, as she took the small set of stairs two at a time to reach his workstation. She carried a cup of tea in each of her hands.  Q took his scrabble mug from her and blew softly over the surface.  

     “No.”

     “Hmmm.  You know you’ll never live it down if the double-ohs hear you.” R continued to tease him, despite his brevity.  “So, what is our favorite action hero up to?”

     “His job, as well as being bored and bothersome.”

     “Need a hand?” R asked, scanning the monitors and camera feeds.

     “No, it’s quiet and he’s trailing the only suspicious activity we’ve seen so far.  He may have turned his earpiece off, for now, but I have him on camera.”

     R glanced up at her slim, dark haired boss.  “Does he know about the override you installed in his earpiece?”

     Q sipped daintily at his tea, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

     R snorted.

     “I  installed them in several of his earpieces.” Q turned his head slightly towards her, a small smirk on his face and a spark of mischief in his green eyes. 

     R laughed and gave him a quick shove to the shoulder before she walked away to collect the evenings reports from his underlings who had the misfortune to be working the slow night shift,  The Midnight Minions, they had taken to call themselves.  Q gave his head a quick shake at the strange nicknames that the employees in his branch settled on.  Always morphing, shifting, but never dropping the Minion bit. 

     Q’s Minions, Midnight Minions, Tea Minions, Game Night Minions, Don’t Feed Them After Midnight Minions, R’s Minions, Santa’s Little Helper Minions, Sleep When You’re Dead Minions, Double-Oh Babysitter’s Club Minions (you needed to pay a membership fee for this one, it supplied the alcohol that the Minions would need following very hard missions) and the very special, elite crew...Bond’s Minions...these rare creatures were the few Minions that would:

  1. Actually tolerate the bloody menace. 
  2.  The bloody menace tolerated them.
  3. Were immune to his charm, which might just be a subsection of 1.  
  4. Weren’t stupid and acted quickly.  They were forgiven for not being up to Q’s speed as long as they were calm in the working field.
  5. Invited him to weapons test or beta test anything that blew up.
  6. Gleefully kept Q fed by 007’s orders whenever 007 was out on mission, don’t think Q wasn’t aware of what they were doing and with whom they were in cahoots with.



     Q’s attention was pulled away from his mental list by M’s Chief of Staff, Bill Tanner calling him and asking for an update on the missions of a few of the other agents currently in the field, including 007’s.  Q set his call on speaker and began to rattle off a few of up to date details.  According to his records, all agents, except for 007 were in a holding pattern of sorts in each of their missions.

     “A bored agent is a troublesome agent,” said Tanner, as if he was quoting a well known clan motto.  He gave a small sigh at the end, weary of forever bearing the brunt of bored agents.

     “Quite.” Q agreed out loud with a small shake of his head.

     “Do you think we can get that on t-shirts for the double-ohs Boss?” asked R, again from his elbow, they were almost of a height and he turned an amused glance her way, catching the mischievous look in her blue eyes.  

     “You’re worse than the minions,” he muttered to her in an aside.  In a bit louder of a voice, he let loose his humor.  “With the way the double-ohs eat through the Q-branch budget, I’m not sure we’d be able to fund such a project.”

     A gentle wave of whispers came from the shadow filled lair of the minions.

     “And we’re NOT setting up a fund to support the cost of clothing the double-ohs in silly t-shirts.” Q raised his voice and threw it over his shoulder, his eyebrows lowering themselves as he glared around.  “If I catch anyone setting up a ProjectFundMe, I will find you and you will never be able to access your bank accounts again, ever.”

     “Temper, temper, Quartermaster.” Tanner sighed as if he were weary of dealing with bored agents and Quartermasters who were just as dangerous as a double-oh when in a fit of temper.  “Although, if anyone sets up a ProjectFundMe jar...I have a fiver I would be happy to donate to the cause...allowing that the only shirt color available will be pink and the lettering will be done in rainbow glitter.”

     A pause followed Tanner’s words, followed by a fist pump by R, who whispered, “Yes!” harshly and turned to dive into the Midnight Minions, a flurry of action began as they divided up the details of shirt design, cotton content, color and cost.

     “I really, really hate you right now, Tanner.”

     “Think of it as a team building exercise, Q.  Something to boost workplace inter-departmental interactions.”

     “I’m not sure that means what you think it means,” Q huffed out.

     Tanner laughed and hung up after telling R to send a minion up to collect his donation.

     Q hung up on the man and shook his head.  He returned to his surveillance and lines of code and bits of pet projects strewn about his workstation.  He gave another small smile to himself as he heard the rustling of the minions behind him.  His subjects were happy.


	3. Sisters of Fate

THEN….

 

     There was a time before, when Gods and Goddesses ruled the earth, above and below, and in that tiny corner of the universe, a most unique pairing occurred.  Hades, a cold, stern God who ruled the dead and cared little for what went on above his head, rarely left the Underworld and all the souls in his care.  Until one springtime he stood upon the edge of his domain and he spotted a warm, loving figure that walked amongst the flowers and trees.  

     As the figure drew closer, Hades recognized him as Persephone.  He walked with the sun upon his head, the earth warm against his feet, greenery at his beck and call and oh how Hades wanted, but being that Persephone was Demeter’s son, Hades knew that Persephone was not meant for him.  He turned his back upon the warmth and retreated back down into the welcoming cold of the Underworld and put such matters of wanting out of his head, for as we know, wanting and having are two very different outcomes of the ending to a story.

     Persephone was many things when he set his mind on something, he was destructive, passionate and stubborn.  He too had seen Hades on that rare occasion of Hades's exploration and within his own self, developed the same intense feeling of wanting, but instead of running from it, like Hades had done, Persephone’s want turned into desire, which turned into the need to possess and have, to keep.  Without thought to his Mother, a chase began, fierce and at first one sided, until that stubborn, springtime son of Demeter wore Hades down and claimed him for his own.

     But, destruction followed Persephone, and everything has a price, including love.  Persephone’s Mother, heartbroken and angry at the loss of her child to the cold realm that Hades ruled, punished the world for her son’s foolishness, until a bargain was struck and the sun shone down upon Persephone again and they walked hand in hand throughout Hades realm, until, as all good things, they must end.  

     Lured out to walk by Persephone’s side in the Upperworld at the very end of the harvest, Hades was suddenly called upon to defend the city of Plyus.  He was felled, by an arrow, drawn and let loose by Heracles.  As Hades lay wounded, away from his domain, Persephone was drawn back into the Underworld by his bargain made with his Mother and his Husband and was trapped for the long winter, without Hades.

     By the time Winter ended and Persephone was allowed back into the Upperworld to bring the Spring, Hades...was gone.  Persephone searched amongst the Gods and Goddesses of both the Upper and Underworld, but found no trace of his husband.   He continued to bring the Spring and managed the harvest time while keeping safe the souls of his subjects, whether it was in peace or in punishment, a balance.  The years passed by slowly, they do when you’re alone, and Persephone kept to his bargain.  Until one day, he was no longer needed.  The Gods and Goddesses became forgotten, relics of time, and the Upperworld had achieved it’s own sort of balance, enough so that Persephone could wander freely amongst the mortals and not be punished.

 

* * *

 

     Swift footsteps carried their owner through the depths of Underworld, until they came to the gates and stopped at the side of a large three headed dog, whose heads were busy watching their master agitate himself.  One of the heads cocked itself to the side and stuck it’s tongue out, to give a swift lick.  “Ew, Cerberus, not now,” Persephone said, shoving at the side of the massive head.  

     Cerberus gave a whine and lowered all three heads staring dolefully up at their fading master.  Where Persephone had once been a bright light in the Underworld, he was now dimmer, fading with age, worry and lack of worship.  The only thing that retained the spirit of the once joyful and force filled God, was the bright blue of his eyes, gleaming even in the shadows that lined the halls of Hades.  His hair, once filled with the warm sun of Spring and Summer, was now the color of the Winter sun, pale, with streaks of white clouds passing across.  Cerberus hunched lower and scooted himself closer, until his thick shoulders were touching Persephone.  

     “I know, I know.  I miss him too.” Persephone whispered, leaning into the large shoulders to reach his hands up to scratch behind the ears of the closest head.  The other heads began making small sounds in order to encourage Persephone not to forget them as he petted the first head.  “I have to make a journey.  I need to find the fates.”  Cerberus whined and Persephone gave him a few more pats.  “Guard the gates Cer, I’ll be back.  I promise.  I won’t leave you.”  Persephone looked back into the Underworld and saw that all was as peaceful as the afterlife allowed and snapped his fingers.  The Gates opened and Persephone exited to the mournful howl of Cerberus.

 

* * *

 

   

 Persephone paced back and forth across the rough, worn ground of a bare campsite.  He had tracked the Fates to this part of the world, an odd place for a trio of ancient crones to stay.  The ground was rough, the vegetation sparse, but the air was dry.  Perhaps old bones preferred the dry heat.  Persephone watched the sun as it tracked across the sky, it was day time and the Fates wouldn’t appear before the sunset.

     Back and forth, back and forth, he had nearly worn a trough into the ground before a fire sprung out of the middle of the campsite, nearly singing Persephone with its sudden appearance.  A colorful tent sprung up and he could hear colorful cackling from within, until there was a sudden silence, as if they sensed the intruder.  Persephone gave an audible swallow, but stood his ground as a lone eyeball was pushed through the folds of material at the entrance.  It stared at him, bloodshot, a mix of greys and browns.  The eyeball retreated and he could hear fractions of whispering voices.

_“....Godling.”_

_“Persephone....”_

_“Is it time?”_

    “Will you see me?” Persephone called out, he was greeted by silence.  He waited three heartbeats before opening his mouth to call out again, before he was surprised into silence himself as a large bag of white objects were thrust out of the tent.

     “S’more?” the bodiless hand asked Persephone.

     “Um?” Persephone did not know how to answer what was put before him.  He took a step back as the three Fates jostled their way out of the tent, each of them knocking into the front support pole.  Persephone steadied them and it as best they could.

     “Oh he is nice.”

     “The little Godling has manners.”

     “Did you offer him a s’more as we agreed upon?”

Persephone blinked again as the bag was once more thrust into his face, along with the eyeball.  He looked between the two items.  

     “You know they’re really not s’mores if there’s no chocolate.” A second fate said to her sister.

     “Little godling, would you care for a...a...toasted marshmallow sandwich?  Clotho ate the chocolate.” The fate holding the bag of white objects hooked her thumb to Clotho who was trying to look innocent as she slumped her way to the fire.

     “Before I ingest anything you offer, perhaps you should tell me what a s’more and marshmallow are and what the price is.”  Persephone felt that this may have been a tactical error on his part, in dealing with Hades, but now, it may have been the wrong thing to say, because the three Fates and their one eyeball all lit up in excitement.  After that, it was utter chaos while the other two sisters, Lachesis and Atropos pushed and pulled at Persephone in their enthusiasm, simultaneously described the deliciousness of S’mores and harassed Clotho for eating what remained of their chocolate.

     After the novelty of extremely excited sisters settled down and the eye had been passed back and forth, as well as the bag of marshmallows, Persephone asked his question of the Fates.  

     "You can tell me, can’t you?  Will I find my husband? Will I find Hades?"

     And in a chorus, the Fates responded with, "Yes and No."

     "Which answers which?  What of his string? Where does it lead”

     Clotho held up a massively knotted piece of red thread, heavily matted and sticking together in certain sections.  “One is yours, the other is his, to cut one would sever the other.”

     “So he is alive!” Persephone breathed, his eyes latched onto the knotted pieces, practically drooling in his relief.

     Lachesis  began to pull blindly at the wad of thread, picking at it.  Frayed bits of dried and weak pieces fell off.  “As alive as he will stay for now.  Which of you is this and which of this is he, we can not say.  All things come to an end and he has been in the realm of where things end for an awfully long time.  We can not stop the process, we can not choose.  Time is finite.”

     Persephone clenched his fist. “ Where is he?”

     Lachesis literally cackled like the old crone she was, "Hahahaha, what are we Oracles?  Seekers? We're busy here, little godling."

     “We’re busy googling,” the third fate snickered, she waved the small glowing screen of a phone towards the eye that the first fate was holding.  

     The first fate sighed at her sisters before handing the eye over.  “Try the Oracle”

     “Which one?” Persephone asked.

     “Pythia.”

     “The Oracle of Delphi, she still lives?” Persephone asked.

     “More like the Oracle of Wifi,” sniggered Atropos, passing the eye back and forth over her screen.  

     Clotho heaved a longer sigh.  “If I had an eye, I’d roll it,” she grumbled.  

     In response, Atropos circled the eye for her before looking up, “Yes, she still lives.  She’ll have news of what you seek, connected like she is.  Want to see this funny cat video?  I love this user, he has lovely cats.  You should get on the net, make one of Cerberus!  Think of all the followers you could get!”

     “No.  And no, I will not make one of those, whatever they are of Cerberus.  Thank you sisters, you have been most unhelpful, except for you lady.  I will try the Oracle.”

     “Look to the cafes, the ones with information in this digital age, she’ll be there, passing the knowledge through her fingers.” Clotho advised, blindly looking at Persephone.

Persephone turned to leave, but not before he heard the sisters quietly mutter to each other behind his retreating back.

     “He can not undo the strings.”

     “No one can.  Fools.”

     “I always did like Persephone, he made such wonderful blooms.  It’s a shame, really.”

     “He hasn’t much time…”

     “Where are the scissors?”

At this, Persephone hastened from the campsite, away from the sticky white marshmallows that were weighing him down and where the sisters of fate held the life of him and his husbands life crumbled amongst them.


	4. The Wrath of R

NOW….

 

     “What’s he doing?” R asked from behind Q’s shoulder.  She had come back after reviewing the night reports and had a summary ready for her boss to look over.  Q lifted his head slightly to cast a quick glance in her direction, her fingers idly tapping against her tablet as she was staring up at the monitors- where he imagined 007 was prancing about causing mischief or doing something he oughtn't - there was a faint frown on her face, a fine line drawn between her eyebrows.  Q looked to the screens and pushed his glasses up with one of his fingers.  The cameras showed that 007 was definitely doing something he oughtn’t with something that oughtn’t be in that part of Versailles.

     Q opened communications with Bond and in a soft tone, asked “What are you doing 007?”

     Bond gave a miniscule twitch of his hand, before steadying it and murmuring a soft reply, his back to the cameras, “Just stopping to smell the roses.”  He lowered his hand and began to move again.

     Q scanned the screens quickly and paused in his actions, before he turned his attention to R, who was still looking up at the screens, watching as Bond continued to stalk his prey.  He could see her eyes going back and forth to the various rose bushes that had suddenly sprouted out of nowhere.

     “Odd season for roses to be out.  They weren’t there before.” She murmured and reached for a keyboard, but before she had pulled it towards her, Q interrupted by placing his fingertips on the edge of her intended tech target.  

     “You have something for me?”  He asked, nodding to the tablet now tucked under her arm.  She looked down to her tablet, momentarily distracted.

     “Oh, tonight’s reports.”  R replied and held out the tablet.

     “Anything pressing?”

     “No, just a few bits and pieces that could be looked into.”

     Q nodded and scanned the documents.  “Run those down to Analytics would you, and  then you can have your break.”

     R looked up at him curiously, “Sure boss.”

     As R walked away, slowly, looking over her shoulder, Q went back to his work, small movements so as not to bring any suspicion from the minions.  He made sure that all his communications and screens were transferred over to a second secure line before going back through the footage of Bond, who had been sneaking through the gardens, following Maarika and her ‘target.’  

     “A bored agent is a troublesome agent,” he murmured to himself, repeating Tanner from earlier in the evening and watched in complete shock as the footage of Bond played out and as his hand seemed to idly brush along the neatly manicured greenery common to the formal gardens of Versailles whenever he came into contact with it and...Q hesitated before he zoomed in and hit replay several times.  

     Yes.  Yes, he was actually crazy, there was no other alternative solution for what he thought he was seeing.  He dared a peek over his shoulder, but he was still alone and the minions were settled at their tasks.  He took a deep breath and turned back, because he couldn’t be seeing what he thought he was seeing.  Q glanced back up to the  live camera feed.

     “007 where did those roses come from?” Q asked into the void.

     Bond kept walking, smoothly along with one flick of his eyes up at one of the cameras  and cleared his throat before inhaling as if to answer, but thought better about it.  

     “Curiouser and curiouser.  Painting the roses red, where we, Bond?

     “No, your majesty.” Bond spoke softly, a slight raise of the corner of his lips, the only indication of amusement, “I was painting them white.”  Bond looked straight into one of the cameras and raised an eyebrow before turning his head to look behind him.  

     Q’s glance followed.  Where the roses had been darkly colored before in the night sky and revealed to be red in the spread out light, they had now turned a shade of white, standing starkly against the dark green of the hedges under the moonlight.  

     Q let out a breath that he didn’t realize he was holding, until it hurt too much to focus.  “That’s impossible,” he whispered.

     “Perhaps it is,” Bond whispered back.  Q looked again and the roses were gone.

     “Bond.”

     “Target has disappeared.  Requesting radio silence.”

     “Damn it Bond,” whispered Q as their communication link was finally cut by the agent on the other end.  Q began to silently swear before he began to ‘fix’ the footage that had captured Bond and his inexplicable new party trick.  His fingers froze above his keyboard and his thoughts folded in upon themselves in a rush as he remembered the small white flower that 007 had showed him growing in the walls of the hallway and how they had mysteriously multiplied.  Q’s hands shook slightly with the inability to understand what had just happened.  He shook himself and pursed his lips, now was not the time to get distracted, he whispered to himself and poked his brain into rebooting and moving along to finish the task at hand. 

     Before he could complete his work, his screens lit up with the flash of light.  He looked up, as did the minions and saw the fireworks exploding over the party.  Seeing that it was a normal explosive reaction happening and not caused by a double-oh, the minions returned their attention to their tasks.  Only Q knew that these fireworks were being set off far earlier than planned.  Q used the override in Bond’s earpiece, he could hear the agent breathing heavily.

     “007.”  Q said, he quickly re-found Bond on the cameras and lo and behold, Bond was definitely running away from the direction of the fireworks.  “Status report.”

     007 gave a slight jerk and look of disbelief up at one of the cameras, “Cheating, Q.”

     “More like preventative measures.  Care to explain?”

     “Fancied a bit more light to work with.”  

     With that, 007 approached the heavy maze of greenery and where Q expected him to leap over the hedges, 007 raised his hand and gave a small flick and the hedges parted to let him through.

     “We’re going to have a talk, when you get back.” Q whispered softly into 007’s earpiece, watching the eerie effect of the plants parting to let James Bond through.

     “Will we?  About what?”

     “Whatever it is that you’re doing now.”

     “And what am I doing now?”

     “Defying the herbaceous laws of physics.”

     007 snorted, “You think this is impressive?  Watch what I do when I catch up to Maarika.”

     Q could only watch as 007 came to the stone steps and walls and launched himself over, and landed in front of the entrance to a taller set of hedges that towered over him.  

     “The entrance to that hedge maze is to your left,” Q said helpfully, “I can only direct you so far from here.  There’s no camera coverage in the maze.”

     “No need,” 007 replied, he stared at the hedges briefly, before they opened in front of him and he stepped through.  Q lost him as the hedges closed behind him and cursed the lack of cameras.

     Q let out a small huff of breath and went back to review the camera footage.  Maarika had indeed entered this large maze with the head of the passport division, they were walking arm in arm, calmly and without a rush.  The gentleman suspected nothing, he was merely intrigued.  “So you lit the fireworks because…”

     “Distraction and better lighting.  I’m going to need it.”

     “Double-ohs are trained to work in near blackout conditions, what are you saying that I don’t understand?”

     “You’ll see, or maybe you shouldn’t see.  How many cameras have access to this part of the grounds?”

     “Only a few and those are pointed at the entrance, exit and grounds around the maze.  What do you expect will happen?”

     “I need you to do me a favor,” came the bodiless voice of 007.  Q squinted at the dark screens and saw the hedges ripple.

     “Fancy that.  What do you require 007?”

     “Install that mirror app Q-branch has been tinkering with on my phone, now!”

     Q paused for a moment, before moving quickly to do as he was requested and the mirror app began installing on 007’s mobile.  “Done.  Anything else I should know about?”

     “Yes, don’t look directly at her face.”

     “You’re joking.  I know her alias is ‘Medusa,’ but you must be joking.”

     “Sorry, Q.  I wish there was a better way to ease you into this, but there’s not.” 

     Q looked at his laptop screen and whispered softly into Bond’s earpiece, “The mirror app has finished installing and it’s ready to use.”

     “Confirmed.”

     Q watched the screens and listened intently to the noises coming across 007’s earpiece, he held his breath and tilted his head, until he was bowed like a young sapling.

     “Q, what are you doing?” R asked, coming back up to him.  She was studying the odd shape that her boss had managed to get himself into.  “Is everything alright?” 

     Q had no answer for R, so he simply looked at her, her eyes flicked back and forth between his and saw that he was confused and worried at the same time.  She looked up at the monitors and saw that they now showed the empty paths outside of the hedge maze.  “He’s gone in there, hasn’t he?”  Q nodded in response.  He swallowed.  R took another good hard look at Q and stepped closely to his side and murmured, “Is he okay?  Are you okay?”

     “I’m not sure.” Q said, he pushed his glasses back up his nose and the sleeves of his cardigan up as well.  

     “Are the hedges growing?” R asked, frowning at the monitors again.  She snagged a mouse and scrolled to aim the cameras and zoomed in.

     “I’ve got it R,” Q interrupted.

     She simply ignored him and said, “Yes, you do and now so do I.  What IS he doing?”  They both watched the monitors as the hedges moved and shifted, 007’s harsh breath coming clearly through the earpiece, followed by a shout by a male and a high pitched screech.

     “Sorry, Q.”  007 said softly.

    “For what?” Q asked, oh God how he didn’t want to know what 007 was sorry for.  “You know it’s never a good thing when you apologize BEFORE the actual event that you’re going to be sorry for.”

     “What are you sorry for 007?” R asked.

     007 gave a small huff of laughter, “Couldn’t keep her away huh?  I’m sorry for the amount of footage that you’re about to have to modify.”

     “Wha-” R started, but interrupted herself with a startled gasp as the hedges suddenly sprouted several feet in every direction, developing thorns and brambles.  The male voice they had heard earlier had silenced, but the shrieking had turned into a heavy hiss...several hisses.

     “Like a snake,” whispered Q.

     “Is 007 pulling a Maleficent?” R asked quietly, leaning into the Quartermaster’s personal space.  She glanced over her shoulder.  The minions hadn’t noticed anything yet.  

    “No, I believe he’s pulling a Perseus.”

     “Again, what?” R asked, she was beginning to look half scared, half frustrated and didn’t know which one would prevent her from hitting someone.

     “Start pulling the camera footage, put everything on a loop and change the timestamps.  Do it NOW.” Q demanded.  His fingers flying across his keyboard, stopping the recordings and capturing older footage to loop and adjust.  R began to help as they both watched their live monitors in horrific slowed down time at the train wreck of brambles and thorns that 007 was creating.

     “Did you know he could do that?” R asked under her breath.

     Q shook his head, “I think he tried to tell me.”

     “Why are you shaking your head no?”

To answer R, Q just shot a hand out and waved it at the monitors and gave her the ‘look.”

     “Yeah okay, right.”  R took a deep breath and muttered softly under her breath as she continued to help Q erase and piece together believable footage.  When they had enough, they set it on a loop and stood back to watch.  Well, R stood back to watch, she had to shoot her hand out to place it on Q’s forehead when she noticed him leaning down to hit it against the surface of his workstation.  “Perseus, huh.  Who knew.”

     “I’m not Perseus,” 007 grunted out.

     “Could have fooled me.” R said, she pulled out a packet of gum from her back pocket and unwrapped a piece to chew it.  

     “I’m Persephone.”  007 grunted out again.

     R laughed, nearly choking on her gum.  Q let out a soft huff for what passed for his laughter, but no one else was laughing with them.  

     “Well, alright 007, I’ll just schedule that psych visit while you’re playing around in Versailles.” Q said, opening a new window on his laptop, he broke into Psych’s scheduling system and glanced up once at R’s silence.

She had one eyebrow raised at him and was slowly chewing her gum.  She held up one finger and began to list items and fingers off.  

  1. That weird rose thing.
  2. Medusa
  3. You uploaded a mirror app on his phone, I can see that here.
  4. Hissing snakes, see no. 2.
  5. THAT WEIRD MALEFICENT PLANT THING THAT’S HAPPENING RIGHT NOW!



R was practically yelling at the end of her list.

     “I realize that this isn’t normal R, but,” Q waved his hand back at the monitors, “do you have any suggestions?”

     “Get him out of there!”

     “How do you plan on doing that R?” 007 drawled out in a bored voice.  “Seeing as I have a mission to complete.”

     “Nowhere in your mission parameters did it say you would be turned to stone!  I know my Greek mythology, every good little schoolgirl does.”

     “I was never a very good little schoolgirl.”

     “I beg your pardon.” Q sniffed.

     “I know you adore your resurrection scheme 007, but once Medusa turns a person to stone, they stay that way.”

     “You’re, uh, awfully accepting of this R.” 007 huffed, “I haven’t even found her yet.  Do you feel like loaning me your helmet of invisibility Q?”

     “My what?”

     “Hades helmet of invisibility,” R reflexively spat out.  “See, every good little schoolgirl remembers her greek mythology.  Perseus had a shield from Athena, sandals from Hermes, a sword from uh, Hephaestus and Hades’s helmet of invisibility.  ALL YOU HAVE IS A WINKY DINKY MIRROR APP 007!”

     “Stop yelling at me, this earpiece is literally in my ear.  If Alec’s nearby, I wouldn’t mind borrowing his sword either.”

      “Hold on, you’re telling me that not only are you not Perseus, you’re Persephone, 006 is Hephaestus and Q is Hades!?” R’s hissed our viciously.

     “SUPREME COMMANDER OVERLORD,” shouted a minion who had hearing too good for his own good, which got the attention of all of the Midnight Minions.  R and Q turned to stare out at their blinking faces.  “WE VOTED!”

     “Shit.” Q said, succinctly.

     “Quite.” R agreed, she looked her boss up and down.  “You don’t look any different.”

     “I wouldn’t, because I’m not Hades.  I’m Q.”  At these words, Q froze as another waking dream took him.

~~*~~

_ The Gates thrown wide, a body thrown wide, accepting him. _

_ Warmth before him, warmth around him,  _

_ warmth within him, filled with the sun. _

_ Blossoms sprouting where he had been touched, _

_ petals scattering against the cold of his skin. _

_A reciprocating touch.  A warm voice I have you, you are mine._

_ A voice, subterranean cold rose from his own cold lips, how did you find me? _

_                 How did I find you?  You were always mine, Hades.  _

_                                                                                                As I was always yours, husband. _

_ And he was consumed by the bright sun,  _

_ powerless before it, but stronger because of it.   _

_ Together they were whole. _

_ ~~*~~ _


	5. The Boys Are Back In Town

THEN….

 

     Persephone stood at the gates of the Underworld, in between the first and second head of Cerberus.  “Old dog,” he said into the dark fur of Cerberus’s first head.  Cerberus thumped his tail on the floor.  “Our powers are fading.”  Persephone switched to the second head.  “I have to make a choice.  I can either stay here and fade with you, while your other master fades in the Upperworld, alone.”  Cerberus let out a whine.  Persephone ruffled the fur.  “Or, I can leave you here to guard the gates, while I enter the new world and brave it, to find him.” The first head licked his master.  “There are no guarantees I’ll find him!  He’s been gone for an age, his powers, whatever they are will be too faded to fully return here.”  Cerberus whined again.  “I can not keep one, without the other and...I must have him.  Do you understand?” Persephone whispered into the fur.  

     The third head came up and quietly stared down at Persephone.  He was shifted away from Cerberus as the great dog rose from it’s place on the ground.  The head’s licked and nuzzled at each other before they returned to sniff and jostle Persephone.  The third head barked once and the other head’s followed.  As one, they put their muzzles close to Persephone and began to push him away and out through the Gates.

     “Wait a minute, don’t I get a say in this!?” Persephone asked, startled at the action.

     “NO.” The sudden answer, where there was no other being around except for Cerberus, thundered from the mouths of three dogs heads in unison.

     Persephone stared up at the massive dog towering above him, having spoken for the first time ever.  Stunned, he was slow to react as Cerberus forced him through the Gates.  With one gigantic lick, Cerberus gave him one last nudge and Persephone turned to face the Gates as they closed, he raised a hand and heard a faint whine from Cerberus one last time before the Gates sealed themselves.

     “No.” Persephone whispered to the Gates.  “No.”  He ran up to push against the gates to open them, but they would not budge.  “Cerberus, open the Gates.”  Silence greeted the command.  “Cerberus, I order you to open the Gates now!”  Persephone’s eyes darted back and forth and he slammed himself against the great carved stone.  “I can’t.  Cerberus, I can not!  Do not ask this of me, I can not leave you.”  Persephone slid to the floor, “But I can not leave him.”  His eyes turned from the Gates to the distance.  A few more steps and he would be in the Upperworld.  Free to search for that which he had lost.  “Fine.  Fine, fine, fine.  I’ll do it, but I’m not going to like it.  When I get back dog, we’re going to have a long chat.”

     With nothing on his back or in his possession, Persephone squared himself away from the Gates and strode away briskly, muttering to himself, “I caught him once, I’ll catch him again.  And this time Mother, there will be NO interference.” He held up a finger, as if to make a point and jabbed it upwards, each jab punctuating his words “No. Inter. Ference.”

     A soft breeze caught him at the end of his short speech.  “No, Mother.  This does not mean you finally get your way.”  He could have sworn he heard someone laughing but now was not the time to focus on old problems.  New problems abounded.  He needed a to do list.

  1. Find Hades.
  2. Return to the Underworld.
  3. Have a talk with Cerberus.
  4. ~~Live happily ever after.~~



     All right, that would do it.  Clear cut goals.  Anything more complicated than that and he was going to run into trouble.  Speaking of, he had better cross of the happily ever after part, the Gods normally weren’t into letting people live happily ever after just because that’s what they wanted to do.  Persephone thought back to how he had managed to land Hades and it was definitely not the version that the Gods had sold the masses following his hostage takeover of the Underworld.  Persephone had learned early in life that if you wanted something, you took it.  That might be the egotistical, narcissistic God like syndrome that all the Greek Gods suffered from.  He couldn’t decide if it was a curse or a blessing.  Once he had discovered who it was that was really lurking in the Underworld, Persephone had dug his claws in and refused to be budged.  Hades had led him on a very indifferent dance, he gave a small smile at the memory.  “I am of Olympus, I will find him and conquer him once more.”  

 

* * *

 

 

     Years, even decades later and Persephone had come no closer to finding Hades than when he started.  He was a tired and broken God, fading slowly but surely in the profession that he had chosen that allowed him access all over the world to find his husband.  Oddly enough, he had found the old forge God, Hephaestus early on and together they had carved a life for themselves out of what would become MI-6.  It had started as a fledgling department that they watched grow and grow until it became old enough for them to match appearances with.

     It was a mystery to most of MI-6 how these two gentlemen had survived for so long in the Double-O program, when agents with less telling years and scars never came back from the field, and if they did, they were never in quite the same piece as when they left.  

     Persephone and Hephaestus had gone through several alias and identities before the landed on the currently accepted and documented identities.  Occasionally in the private company of each other, they may slip their ridiculous old monikers on, but that was usually because Hephaestus decided to set Persephone’s coat rack or book shelf on fire out of boredom as he cited that he needed a fire to light his forge, so that he could fix “something.”  Persephone was 100% certain that it was boredom that needed fixing, not the random horseshoe Hephaestus would always find while away on assignment.    

     Persephone was on his way to receive a mission from M, the head of MI6 and found Hephaestus was already waiting outside of M’s office, attempting to flirt with Ms. Moneypenny.

     “Alec?” Moneypenny asked softly, gazing up at the large blond man smiling like a massive, boorish shark down at her.  His green eyes struggling to maintain eye contact between her cleavage and her eyes.

     “Yes, Moneypenny?”  Alec responded sweetly, leaning a hip against her desk.

     “Get your fat arse off my desk and go do what M told you to do.”  With that, she started throwing pens from her well stocked desk set.

     “Ow!” He grumbled as one of the pens pinged off of his cheekbone.  

     “Be gone, before one of these either explodes or shocks you.”

     “Where would you have gotten an exploding pen!?”

     “I’m good friends with the new Quartermaster.”  Moneypenny smiled and chucked another pen at Alec.

     A look of fierce intensity crossed Alec’s face as he eyed the pen before dodging it.  “You lie.  Old Q stopped making them ages ago, and James, told me that the New Q wasn’t into that sort of stuff”  Alec hooked a thumb over to Persephone who was eyeing the pens equal parts suspiciously and covetously.

     “Maybe it’s because I’ve been around the new Q longer than you two.  You’ve just gotten off of a long term assignment in Russia, Alec.  James keeps disappearing in between missions.  When have you two gotten a chance to know him?  He’s made me several exploding pens, ten equipped with a taser feature and five that explode with permanent traceable ink, that will not come out of your fancy suits 007, we’ve experimented.  Sometimes it pays to have a desk job.”  Moneypenny smiled wide as both agents scowled at her.  

     They exchanged glances with each other, clearly not believing her still.  She furrowed her brow in mock concentration and ran her perfectly manicured nails over the ends of her remaining pens.  “Now, button, button, who’s…got...the...BUTTON!”  At the word BUTTON, Moneypenny clicked the end of one of the pens and lobbed it into the air and cackled, literally cackled as two of MI-6’s agents dove for cover as the pen arched up and landed with a soft thunk onto the dull grey carpeting of the executive offices, before it gave up a loud crack of electric charge, singing the spot of dull grey carpet it had landed on.

     “Fuck!  Moneypenny!”

     “Christ!  You’re dead and so is Q.”  James said, glaring at Moneypenny as he dusted off his bespoke suit.  “I won’t even have to kill you.  My tailor will do it for me.”

Moneypenny ignored the growling beasts and rose in a stately manner from her desk.  “M will see you now, 007.  006, take your fat arse for a walk.”

     “I’m not fat,” grumbled Alec, “I’m stocky.”

     “No, Bond here is stocky, you’re fat and a walking disturbance.  Shoo.”  Moneypenny hit the button that would open M’s door and walked towards it, with her back to a very irritated well known pyromaniac and his partner in crime.

     “I’m going to go find this new Q.” Alec mumbled to 007.

     “You do that dear.” Moneypenny said over her shoulder and wiggled her fingers to say goodbye to Alec and then wiggled them to move James along.

     “I’ll meet you later Alec,” James said as Alec paused next to him.  “Go easy on him, he’s a good lad.”

     “Don’t let him hear you say that out loud, ever,” Moneypenny said to both of the agents, her finger zig zagging back and forth between the two of them.  “I don’t care if you have a license to kill, he’ll destroy you with the push of any key and it doesn’t even have to be the enter key.”

     “I used to know a guy like that,” Alec said, his eyes flicked to James for a moment.  “He was a hard ass, who even the dead feared.  We used to call him the destroyer.  Regular high strung prince- oof,” Alec was cut off with James’s elbow thrust into his midsection.  Grinning, Alec left the antechamber to M’s office and swung himself out the door and down the hallway in search of Q-branch and it’s new Q.  

     After his long assignment in Russia, he was due for all sorts of tests from medical, psych and re-familiarizing himself with major changes to MI6’s infrastructure following the Silva and Skyfall incident.  He hadn’t had a chance to catch up with James about it, the other double-oh was being awfully quiet about it.  Touring Q-branch was much more to Alec’s liking than visiting medical and psych.  He muttered to himself as he made his way through the new offices.

  1. Find new Q.
  2. Turn in remaining gear that Old Q had given him.
  3. Make nice with any new interns in hopes of weasling explosive tech out of them.
  4. Tell new Q how mean Ms. Moneypenny was to him with her new pens and could he have some...please(?)  he’s not sure if new Q will appreciate the please.
  5. Irritate James until he spills about Silva and Skyfall.
  6. ~~Find a sandwich~~.  Eat a salad.
  7. Avoid medical
  8. Avoid psych
  9. Tell Moneypenny he’s not fat.



     With his list in mind, Alec descended down into the old tunnels that currently housed Q-branch.  For a moment, as he stood in the dark, concrete bricked hallways with the lights flickering he wished he had thought to ask for James, Moneypenny or hell, even Tanner to come down with him.  

     The doors to Q-branch opened at his security code and as the dark air stirred and passed by him, his lip curled at the subtle chthonic smell.  He wasn’t stupid and while he had been stuffed away in Russia for 6 months and out of contact with James, he recognized a power born of Chronos when he felt it.  It was fading, but it was there, he bared his teeth in his shark like grin as the techs behind their workstations fell silent at the new intruder.  

     With a subtle shift of awareness that began at one corner of the room among the gaping faces, a strange shuffle of heads and shoulders spread throughout, preceding 006 to the slender. dark haired man, wearing a blue and grey marled cardigan over a white collared shirt and brown tweed pants standing with his back to the danger slowly approaching him.  As the motion finally caught the man’s attention, he turned to find himself the recipient of Alec’s sharp grin.

     “Hades.” Alec said to the new Q, with a light of humor in his eyes.

     “It’s Supreme Overlord Commander,” A voice off to Alec’s left whispered harshly.  

     “We could change it,” whispered another, followed by several others.

                      “We would have to vote!”

     “You always want to vote.”

                            “Hades is pretty cool sounding.”

                                                      “Shadow Hunter wou....”

        “Where do you get these names from Josh?”

                                          “I have a lot of time on my hands at midnight!”

                    “I thought we agreed on Supreme Overlord Commander.”

   “Are we going to let Q vote this time?”

     Alec turned to stare out at the small populace scattered throughout Q-branch as they had this ridiculous conversation amongst themselves, paying no attention to himself or Q who only sighed softly and shook his head.  A familiar young woman with non-regulation bubble gum pink hair and piercings padded out of the dark and walked right up to Alec.

     “006,” she greeted him warmly, with a light touch to his elbow.  “Met the new Q have you?”

     “It’s a pleasure 006, although, you are 6 months late to the minions naming party.” Q said, holding a hand out to shake.

     “Minions?  Naming party?” Alec asked, confused as he had never been in his entire life, to find Persephone’s missing husband standing in the depths of MI6.  Belatedly he realized he was leaving the Quartermaster’s hand hanging out in the open and he reflexively reached his own hand out to grasp it quickly and firmly.  The Quartermaster pressed and gave it a brief shake before trying to release his hand from 006’s grip, but before he was released, he was pulled slightly forward while 006 studied him curiously for a moment.

     “Yes,” Q said while giving his hand another tug.  “Since moving into the bunker, the denizens of Q-branch-”

     “Minions!” A voice from the masses called out.

     “Thank you, minions, have become quite mad with power and have christened their new home by naming everything and anyone they can get hold of.”

     “So,”  R said, as she started slapping at Alec’s hand that was still holding onto Q’s, “Stop that, he needs his hands, don’t crush them.  So,” she continued, “The techs have renamed themselves minions of various varieties, Q is the Supreme Overlord Commander…”

     “And you are?” Alec couldn’t help but ask.

    “Princess Bubblegum.” A minion called out, followed by several rounds of snorting and giggling.

     “I shudder to think what you’ve renamed the double-ohs.”  A ripple followed Alec’s statement.  “THAT’S NOT AN INVITATION,” he thundered out when he realized that a sort of suggestion and voting had gotten underway behind him.

     “And Q-branch is called the Bunker in polite MI6 company-” R was interrupted

     “BUT WE KNOW IT AS THE UNDERWORLD!” Chorused the entire cadre of midnight minions, startling Alec speechless as he looked around at all their chortling and cackling faces.  Even Q had the ghost of a grin on his face, before he turned back around to his monitors instructing R to finish giving 006 a tour.

     The minute R was done giving Alec the grand tour and had shown him the cocktail napkin of ideas she had kept, he left as quickly as he could to find James.  He didn’t have to look far.  A very guilty looking, fading Persephone met him in the hall outside Q-branch.

     “You didn’t tell me you found Hades.”  Alec said accusingly as James approached him.

     “He’s not Hades.” James said lowly.

     Alec shook his head, “I remember...vaguely, what Hades feels like and that’s Hades.”  Alec thrust his finger towards the door of Q-branch.

     “No, he’s not. Hades was...is, cold and distant and uncaring about anyone, except for me, Cerberus and the guests of the Underworld and even then, he could care less about them except that they don’t wander off.  I mean, I’m the one that usually made them regret what they did in life and punish them in death.  But then, I feel...I feel Hades, I can!  I know it’s him...but…”

     “Buuuuuuuut,” Alec prompted, watching Persephone flail around for words, not helping him one bit, just watching to see what the other fading God would come up with.  

     James ran his hands viciously back and forth across his hair, making it stand on it’s short ends, before he covered his face to yell out in a muffled voice, “BUT IT LEADS ME TO Q, AND HE’S ALL CREATING THINGS AND CARING ABOUT THINGS AND YELLING ABOUT THINGS.  THAT IS NOT HADES.  HADES WAS NEVER...THAT!!  EXCEPT TO ME.  ONLY I EVER SAW THAT PART OF HIM!  WHAT’S MINE IS NOT MINE ANYMORE!”  James lowered his hands and looked up, imploringly at Alec and whispered, “Like the Oracle said, it’s a victory, just to find the thing I lost, but my husband is changed!”

    “James…’Seph.”  Alec placed a hand on the slumped shoulder of his friend and forced him to meet his eyes.  James saw the echo of a small forgelight in Alec’s eyes.  “Are any of us the same as we once were?”

     “He doesn’t remember.” James mumbled to the ground.

     “I’m sorry, what was that?”  Alec shook James’s shoulder and lowered his head until they were of a height.

     “He doesn’t remember.” James said louder, now becoming annoyed at his annoying friend.  “He doesn’t remember who he was or what we were.”

     “Did you ask him?”

     “No.  Absolutely not.  He’s happy as he is.”

     “Sure about that, are you?  So how do you know he doesn’t remember?  What if he recognizes you but thinks you don’t remember him?”

     “I just know.  You remembered me and he doesn’t.”

     “So what!  Here I’ve been gone for six months and I’ve come to find out that you’ve found Hades, actually found your husband and you haven’t done anything yet?” Alec said, incredulous, throwing his hands up in the air in frustration at the timidity of his fellow God with a known nasty streak of destruction.  He couldn’t help it, he reached out again to give James a good shake of his shoulder.

     “He’s the Quartermaster of MI6.  I kind of can’t…”  James gave a slight lift to the encased shoulder, no hope of dislodging Alec’s fierce grip, but hoping to get him to release it anyway as he fumbled for an answer.

     “Remind him who he is?” Alec asked, pushing off of James’s shoulder and crossing his arms across his wide chest and stared curiously at his friend.

     James sighed the sigh of the tired and annoyed, but Alec was in a helping mood now that his best friend had finally found his lost husband, so he kept  helping.  “And so what, you can’t take him to dinner?”

     “Alec...Heph.”

     “Tell him you love him?”

     “ALEC.”

     “Destroy him?”  Alec smirked at his last helpful suggestion.

     “All of the above.  James nodded miserably.

     Alec looked thoughtful for a moment, “Yeah, you do have a habit of destruction.”

     “Hey.”

     “Well suck it up.  Also, I’ll have you note that it never stopped you before.”

     “What?”

     “Who was it that decided to wander...I’m sorry, jump purposefully into the Underworld?”

     “Shut up.”

     “I’m sorry, I also meant who decided to jump Hades as well?”

     James smiled fondly at the memory before frowning up at Alec, “It’s a different day and age now.  We’re almost completely powerless”

     “Aw, but you can still make the pretty flowers grow!”  Alec said, chucking James under the chin.

     “Shove it up your ass.  He’s been gone far longer than I have.”

     “Doesn’t look it.”  Alec wiggled his eyebrows, “Looks younger than you did when you first laid eyes on him.”

     “I know.  Thanks for that reminder.”  James punched Alec in the gut, but that only caused the larger agent to start giggling.

     “Not a problem, age never stopped you before.”

     “Hey!”  

     “Okay, okay, age has stopped you before, but this time you get to play the older experienced lover versus the blushing ingenue.  Bonus!”  Alec’s face lit up and his eyebrows wiggled even more exuberantly.

     “Is this you helping?  Because you’re not helping.  You’re the furthest thing from helping that has ever helped.”

     “James, are you blushing?”  Alec tilted his head back and forth studying James.  He pushed his finger into James’s cheek to test the skin color.

     “I need to kill someone, now.  Preferably you.”

     “You might just get your chance.  I think M’s going to send you on a mission shortly.”


	6. The Wrathful God

NOW…

 

     Q gave a shudder as he came out of it the sudden onset of the dream, it was too much.  “I AM NOT A GOD.”  Q yelled, and the Earth trembled, the lights in the lab flickered and shadows grew and crept upon the walls, breaking Q's focus.  “I...I...I am not a God.”

     “Maybe you want to close that Psych eval?”  R asked, pointing to the window he had open.

     “Shut up, you.” Q mumbled.

     “Or what, you’ll drown me in the River Styx?”

    They were interrupted by a heavy thud and hissing as 007 finally found his target.  “Wrap her up in the vines, you moron!”  R yelled, eyes darting blindly at the wall of hedges as if she could see through the thick shrubbery.

     “Not helping!”  007 yelled back.

     Q took a step backwards, R shoved forward, but there was little she could do.  “Come on Q, if 007 can make the plants dance, surely you can do something!”

     “I...I...We,” Q swallowed hard and looked from where the minions had gathered behind them, to R’s eager look. He stepped closer to the comm link and whispered, “We were husbands?”  R’s mouth dropped at this statement and she goggled at Q for a minute before looking back at the minions.  They looked confused at what they were seeing and hearing, they began to whisper.

    “You mean he’s not the Supreme Overlord Commander?”

     “Hades.”

     “006 was right.”

     “They knew!”

     “Except for Q.”

     One of the Midnight Minions stepped forward, “Right, okay, 007 is in trouble, it’s Medusa, a level 92 Legendary Gorgon with a heavily damaging Stone Glare.  Bond is what guys?”

     “A level 63 Action Hero?” A minion called out from the very back, her voice ringing throughout the lab.

     “No, he’s a God remember, he’d have a higher rating!”

     “Are they seriously rating me?” 007 asked breathlessly from the speaker.

     “Uh, Busy right now 007” R answered.

     “You must be joking!” 007 growled.

     “Okay, Bond is a level 90 Olympian God, are we agreed on that, raise your hands!  All right, agreed.  He’s got-” the minion was interrupted by R.

     “A WINKY DINKY MIRROR APP.  THE DAMAGE POINTS ARE DIDDLY SQUAT.” R bellowed across the room.

     “And that flower thing he does...now...apparently,” Q said, holding up a finger hesitantly.

     “He’s been able to do that for ages.”  An unexpected deep voice was added to the melee, startling the minions like a flock of starlings.  As soon as they got their elbows and assorted electronics calmed down, they turned as one flock to stare at the new intruder who walked right up to Q’s station and nodded at him.  “Hades.”

     “Great, Alec, slash Hephaestus is here,” R said, throwing her arms into the air.  Hushed whispers replaced the silence that had descended upon the Minions.

     “STOP RATING ME!”  Alec boomed into the air above the minions.  “I can hear you.”

     “We’re all having a talk when this is over,” Q said, glaring up at 006. 

     “Glad to, but right now, we need to get your hubby-”

     “He’s not my ‘hubby,’” Q growled out harshly, glaring at 006.

     Alec ignored Q and continued on, “As I was saying, get your hubby out of the Gorgon’s way and rating their level isn’t going to help him any.”

     “Got any swords on you Alec?” R asked, “Because we could really use one right about now.”

     “Nah, lost it a few centuries ago.  I think it’s in a museum somewhere.  Have you found her yet ‘Seph?  I can hear her and I can sort of see what you’re doing.  Any luck?”

     “No, she’s evading me in this maze!”

     “Well, put your back into it.” Q barked out.  Everyone paused in their activity to look at him.  “What?  Get on with it 007, you’ve made the maze larger, start closing it in, seal off the exits and we’ll see if we can catch her escaping with the cameras.  In the meantime, she’s beginning to really piss me off.  Oh look, her banking records.  Interesting how many passports she has, I wonder what I can do with that.”  Q said blandly, he had turned his attention to his laptop and was hacking into every record he could find of Maarika.  “If you can take her out in person 007, I believe I can destroy her digitally.”

     “The wrathful God, knew you had it in you Q,” Alec said, slapping Q hard on the shoulder, knocking him hard against the edge of his workstation.  He removed his hand as Q turned to glare at him.

     “Oh look, all of 006’s records have mysteriously popped up on my screen.  I wonder what would happen if I were to hit the delete button?”  Q sang out.

     Alec grumbled and moved away.  The minions continued to cheer 007 on as the maze contorted in on itself as Bond chased down the Gorgon.  By the time 007 had managed to trap her in the maze, it had shifted dozens of yards from where it had started, a large torn up strip of earth marked the path of the battle between 007 and Medusa.  By the time 007 came stumbling out of his crudely, twisted maze, he was bruised, bloody and very, very grubby.  The minions cheered and then gagged at the sight of the bodiless head held in 007’s grip.

     “You don’t need to bring that back with you 007.” Q said softly.

     Bond turned to face one of the cameras and cracked a small smile at the corner of his mouth.  “I don’t, do I.”  He hefted the head once, “The laser cutter you added to my watch came in very handy, in case you were wondering.  I know a good place for this to go though.”  With that, Bond chucked the head back into the maze and said “Cerberus, fetch!”  

     The minions gasped as the head arched back up into the air.  They waited, Q and R waited, but nothing happened that they could see.  The maze gave a slight rustle and then everything was still.  “We’re good,” said 007 nodding.

     “Uh,” R said, she pointed at the monitor.  “No, we’re not 007.  Q and I, excuse me, Hades and I fixed the camera footage, but you need to fix all that crap you left behind.”

     007 turned to regard the heavy mess of thorns and hedges he was leaning against.  “Christ.”  He muttered.  “Alright, enough with the peep show.  I’ll set this to rights and then I’ll head to the extraction point, 007 out.”

     “We’ll need to do something with the transcripts and reports of this Q, I don’t think these are the kind of secrets MI-6 wants to know about.”

     “I don’t even want to know about them,” Q grumbled.  “006!”  

     But it was too late, Alec was already sauntering away, singing off tune, “Persephone and Hades, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.”

     “006!” Q called to his retreating back.

     “First comes love!”

     “Alec, come back here!”

     “Then comes marriage!”

     “HEPHAESTUS,” Q’s voice thundered out again, surprising everyone, including 006.  The walls shook, the shadows grew and a mad light shone in Q’s eyes.  “I DID NOT RELEASE YOU FROM MY REALM.  I WILL GET A ROCK AND I WILL MAKE YOU PUSH IT, UPHILL AND DOWNHILL, BOTH WAYS!  WITH YOUR BOOTLACES TIED TOGETHER,  DO NOT TOY WITH ME!”

     006 froze where he stood and glared over his shoulder, his foot tapping.  “Oh I see, get a husband, remember your powers and now keep me.  Persephone’s not gonna like that.”

     Q descended from his main workstation, slow step by slow step, the mad light increasing, his face pale and still as the pure marble that had once held the carved images of the Gods.  The shadows growing and he became cold, very cold.  He wanted to be warm like he had been, ages ago, but that warmth was not here.  The Forge God was not the right one.  Alec watched as Q forgot who he was in that moment and became the God he once had been.  “You speak of my husband, God of the Forge.  Where is he,” Hades demanded, soft and sibilant.

     Alec sighed and pointed back to the monitors.  “He’s cleaning up his mess.  I’m sure once he’s done, he’ll be back in your cold arms once again.  What it is the two of you see in each other, I’ll never know.”

     “No, you won’t.” Hades replied coldly.

     “You might want to tone it down a bit, now that you remember what you are.” Alec said, but Hades refused to back down.  “The minions,” Alec reminded him, “They’re not used to you.  Well, they’re used to Q, not,” Alec waved his hand, “This.”

     Hades turned to survey his territory and saw the slack jaws and wide eyes.  “I see.”  Hades waved his hand in Alec’s direction, “Leave, before my husband returns.  I do not wish to see you until after he and I have met once more.”

     R glanced briefly between Q and Alec.  Alec shook his head minutely at her and took his leave of Hades.  As soon as Alec was past the doors of Q-branch, whatever had possessed Q had left him.  He was a shell, exhausted and wiped.  

     “I’ve got this Q, so do the Midnight Minions.  You’ve been on for at least 36 hours now and 007 has finished his mission.  Let us do our jobs.  Go home.”  R gave him a shove and while he raised a token protest, the Midnight Minions and R pushed and prodded him gently away from his workstation and R closed out his workstation, logging him off.  Q gave R a slight lift of the corner of his mouth, a smile in his language and she waved him off and the Midnight Minions managed to get through the door.

     “Home,” Q said to himself and passed down the dark hallway, littered with small white flowers.  He touched each in his passing, just the barest brush of a fingertip against the tightly furled buds.  Their blooms unfurled and grew brighter at his passing, as if they too recognized him.

     Q flickered between himself and Hades on the way home, the riders in his train giving him  wary looks and space, something about him now unsettled them.  The kindly grandparents pulled their purses and coats close around them.  The large youths pushed their earphones further into their ears, trying to lose themselves in the sound of their music.  Small children peeped shyly out at him from over their parents shoulders.  Those same parents would glance back and then quickly pull their children down to face away.  Q kept his head down as he exited the tube station and made his way to the entrance to his building, bypassing the elevator and running up the stairs, where he finally stumbled through his doorway.

     “Hades.”

     Q lifted his gaze and drank in the sight of a pristine 007, the mad light caught in Q’s hazel eyes, his glasses doing nothing to stop the effect, and  James saw his husband fully while Hades finally recognized the warm glow of his husband, the rightness of it.

     “I have waited,” whispered Persephone.

     A small dark smile hitched at the corner of Hades mouth.  He reached a hand out and brushed his cold fingers against Persephone’s lips.  They both basked in the small physical touch of renewal and acknowledgement of recognition before they finally clashed, like two Titans battling once more for control to remain whole, together.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~whew, hope you enjoyed it!


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